


Woods of the Unknown

by darkjaden825698



Category: Life Is Strange 2 (Video Game), Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon & Comics)
Genre: (light horror), Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Horror, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:00:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28277274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkjaden825698/pseuds/darkjaden825698
Summary: Sean and Daniel stumble into a mysterious forest that seems to go on forever, and there they meet Wirt and Greg. But the Unknown is known for the unknowable, and soon the group finds themselves in a precarious situation.==Contains spoilers for all of Over the Garden Wall and Life is Strange 2 Episode 1==
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Woods of the Unknown

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all! I wrote this as a gift for a friend of mine in a holiday gift exchange! I hope you all enjoy it! :D

Sean and Daniel had been walking for days. At least, it felt like it. Actually, since their dad was shot and they had to escape, they  _ had _ been walking for days. But this time it felt like a non-stop journey, over 72 hours of endless walking. Sean’s feet ached and burned like they usually did after a particular intense track meet. At least this time he wasn’t getting shin splints.

All around them, the forest seemed to be swallowing them, like each step brought them further and further down a beast’s throat. The trees blended together until each of them looked indistinguishable. The sun was setting, though it felt like it was only light for only a few hours, and the entire world was encased in the golden glow of twilight. Daniel followed at Sean’s side, attached to his hip, looking around anxiously at what might be lurking in the shadows.

“S-Sean?” he stammered. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know,  _ enano _ .”

“Are we lost?”

“No! We’re not lost! We just…” Sean looked around, trying to find some kind of landmark, something to bring them back to the road. “We just don’t know where we are.”

“That’s lost.”

“It’s not lost! We just need to get our bearings. Find somebody and ask for directions.”

“Why would there be anybody out here in these dark, scary woods?” Daniel shivered and grabbed Sean’s hand for comfort.

“Well, I mean…we’re out here, aren’t we?”

“Yeah but we’re lost! So anybody we find will be lost, too!”

“Just...have a little faith in your big brother, okay? I can’t get us out of here.”

“Fine,” Daniel pouted, but he never let go of Sean’s hand.

How did they even get themselves into this mess? The last thing Sean remembered was going to sleep by the fire in their makeshift cave-base. Daniel had set up some “defenses” to protect them from the Orcs or whatever, and they managed to actually get some sleep. Daniel did, at least, restless though it may have been. Sean had trouble falling asleep with everything on his mind.

But after that, his memory just goes blank. He remembers waking up, sort of, and heading out into the woods after packing up, but as to how they managed to spend an entire day lost in the woods, without ever even finding a trail that led back to the road? All of that is a blur, incomprehensible.

“Haven’t we passed this tree before?” Sean asked, pointing towards a particularly recognizable misshapen pine tree.

“Why are you asking me?  _ You’re _ the one who said we’re not lost.”

Sean groaned. “Daniel…”

He was about to lay into his brother, chastise him for being such a brat and just ask him to be cool for  _ once _ , when the sound of voices up ahead stopped him. They were too far away to make out the actual conversation, but it sounded like a boy close to his own age.

“Maybe they can help,” Sean said, and led Daniel deeper into the forest, towards the sound of the voices. As they neared the sound, the speech became clearer and more comprehensible. It was definitely a kid his age, and it sounded like he was arguing with his own little brother.

Sean pushed a leafy branch out of his path and stepped onto a small dirt path, straight and narrow. It almost looked like it was just a trail worn away from years and years of travel. Down the path he spied the source of the voices: two young boys, one with a large metal teapot on his head and the other with a long, red, pointy cap and a cape. They were arguing, much like Sean and Daniel had just been, about how they ended up here.

“You got us lost, Greg! We wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you and that stupid—stupid frog!”

“Hey! Don’t call Esteban stupid! He’s family!”

Sean stopped dead in his tracks. Hearing the name of his father sent him back to that night a few days ago. The crack of the gunshot still rang in his ears, still reverberated in his chest. He shook himself out of it. It was just a name.

“Um, e-excuse me?” Sean said as he approached the two boys. “Can you help us? My brother and I—”

“Yah!” The older boy jumped as Sean approached them. “Wh-who are you?”

“My name’s Sean. This is my brother, Daniel.”

“Hi! I’m Greg!” said the younger brother. “And this is Wirt! He’s a few acorns short of an oak tree,  _ knowamean? _ ” he added, smirking and elbowing his brother in the thigh.

“Um...no,” Sean said. “No, I don’t.”

“Sorry,” said Wirt, shoving Greg off of him and stepping in front of him. “He’s...yeah, anyway, we can’t help you. We’re lost, too.”

“We’re not lost, Wirt!” Greg said, jumping out from behind Wirt. He held out his frog, the frog that shared a name with Dad. “Mark Jr. III knows exactly where we are!”

The frog ribbited, a blank expression on its face.

“I thought the frog’s name was Esteban,” Sean said.

Greg shrugged. “He doesn’t have a name, yet. I’m testing some out!”

“Oh.” Sean sighed, partially relieved, and partially disappointed. “That would have been one major coincidence. Our dad’s name w—our dad’s name is Esteban.”

“Mark Jr. III?” Wirt said, rolling his eyes. “You’re naming the frog after your dad?”

Overhead, an owl hooted, cutting short their conversation. The forest was completely dark now, and the trees seemed to grow taller, curve inward, encasing all of them in a dome of leaves and brush.

“It’s late,” Sean stated. “I don’t know how, but it’s night time already. We should find a place to set up camp.”

“Good idea,” Wirt said. “W-wait, um...we?”

“Yeah,” Sean said. “Strength in numbers, y’know?”

Wirt took a step back. “But how do we know we can trust you.”

“C’mon, Wirt! They seem friendly!”

“We are!” Daniel chimed in. “Well, I am. Sean’s a bit of a sourpuss.”

“Dude! Am not.”

“Are too!”

“Come on!” Greg said, gesturing forward. “I know the perfect place!”

# # #

After a bit more hiking, Greg led them to a small clearing surrounded by trees. A fire pit was conveniently placed in the middle of it, and the tree trunks were caved in to make for shelter.

“How did you know about this spot, Greg?” Wirt asked.

“I saw it when we were going in circles!” Greg said.

“We were going in circles?”

Greg nodded a bunch of times. “Uh-huh! I saw it at least a billion and one times!”

“Greg, why didn’t you say anything?”

“You said we weren’t lost! I believed you!”

Hearing this, Sean chuckled. Wirt and Greg reminded him a lot of him and his own brother. In fact, they had been arguing about the exact same thing just before running into each other. Wirt seemed a bit like a stick in the mud, but Greg and Daniel both had that same youthful innocence.

Sean just hoped that Greg’s innocence wouldn’t be ripped away from him like Daniel’s had. Or would be, once he found out about Dad.

It wasn’t like Sean could keep it a secret forever. He just...needed to find the right time.

“Ooh! Ooh!” Daniel chanted excitedly. “Sean and I made a fire last night! Didn’t we, Sean? I can help!”

“Yeah, we sure did, buddy. Hey, why don’t we go and get some firewood, and—”

“Ooh! Can I come?” Greg piped in. “Mr. Frog and I can help find some wood lickety split!”

“Mr. Frog,” Wirt deadpanned.

“I’m running out of creative steam, Wirt. It happens to us artists.”

Wirt sighed. “Fine. Just don’t go too far alright? No wandering off.”

Greg grabbed Daniel’s hand and started to drag him off into the woods, with Sean trailing behind. But Daniel turned around. “I got this, Sean,” he said. “You don’t need to follow me  _ everywhere _ .”

“But—”

“We’ll stay close, okay? Promise.”

Sean bit his lip, about to protest, but Greg kept dragging him off, remarking about all the neat firewood they’re already finding as he bends down to pick them up. “Fine,” he said. “Just be careful.”

“We will,” Daniel said, chasing after Greg and picking up branches and small logs.

Sighing, Sean went back and sat down in one of the open tree trunks, and slipped off his backpack. They were low on food. Sean had hoped they would find a gas station or a convenience store or something on the road today, but somehow they ended up wandering through the woods all day. He sighed at the empty box of cookies he’d stuffed back into his backpack. At least they still had water.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to let them wander around like that?” Wirt said, sitting down beside Sean.

“Daniel’s a smart kid. He may not act like it all the time, but he knows better than to go too far.”

Wirt looked like he was about to protest, but he didn’t. Instead he just took off his cape and hung it from the branches over the tree trunk’s hollow, creating a door of sorts.

“What’s with the cape?” Sean asked. “N-no offense or anything. I just…”

Wirt chuckled. “It’s fine. It’s a Halloween costume.”

“Oh shit, is it already Halloween?”

Wirt nodded. “Yeah. I was going to this party, well, not really, see there’s this girl Sarah...You know what, never mind, I don’t want to get into it.”

“So how did you end up here? Daniel and I have been walking for days and we haven’t seen any towns around here. You guys must have gotten lost for a while.”

“We were running away from the cops and…”

“Wait. What? Really?”

Wirt took a seat next to Sean. “I mean, sort of. I don’t think we were actually in any trouble, but this cop showed up, and he scared us off, so we just sort of ran and...we ended up here.”

“Oh.” Sean leaned back against the tree trunk. “That’s interesting.”

“What is?”

Sean took a look around to make sure Daniel and Greg weren’t on their way back. Then he lowered his voice and leaned in towards Wirt. “Don’t let Greg or Daniel know, but we’re also on the run from the cops.”

Wirt stiffened beside him. “O-oh. Um...can I...can I ask why?”

“It’s…” Sean sighed. “It’s nothing. It’s not like we did anything. At least...I don’t think we did.”

“You don’t think?”

“Our dad was…” He glanced around again. “Our dad got shot, by a police officer. I blacked out, and the next thing I know, our entire street was destroyed, and the cop was dead. I sorta panicked when I heard police sirens, so I just took Daniel and...and ran.”

“Wow,” Wirt said, leaning into the trunk. “That’s heavy.”

“Yeah. Daniel was unconscious for the whole thing. Well, most of it. He doesn’t seem to remember...remember the shooting.”

“That’s probably a good thing,” Wirt said. “A kid his age doesn’t need to be dealing with that.”

“Yeah.”

Wirt put his hand on Sean’s shoulder. “A kid  _ your _ age shouldn’t have to, either.”

Sean shrugged, rolling his eyes a bit. “I guess.” Even if that were true, it didn’t change anything. It was still his fault they were in this mess, his fault that Dad…

Daniel was his responsibility, whether it was fair or not.

A little more time went by, and the boys still weren’t back yet. Sean tried not to let himself get worried. Wirt, however, made no such attempt.

“They should have been back by now,” he said. “Don’t you think?”

“They probably...just got lost on the way back. I’m sure they’re fine.”

Wirt jumped to his feet. “Of course they got lost, it’s pitch black out. Oh man, why did we let them go out alone.”

“Hey, take it easy man,” said Sean, rising to his feet and putting a hand on Wirt’s shoulder. “We’ll find them. C’mon.”

Wirt and Sean ventured into the forest, calling out the names of their younger siblings, to no avail. Where could they have gone? It wasn’t like Daniel to wander off like that, but then again, Sean didn’t know Greg. Could Greg have convinced him to go further, to get lost with him? What if something bad happened to them?

No, Sean couldn’t think like that. He’d already lost his father; he wasn’t about to lose his brother, too.

“Wirt, we should keep track of where we are, so we don’t get lost, too.”

“Good idea.” Wirt retraced his steps back to their campsite, trying to find something to leave on the ground as a trail. “Do you have like, a marker or something? Maybe we could mark the trees?”

“It’d be too dark to see, anyway. If we had a fire, we could just use that as a beacon.”

“Yeah, but we don’t have a fire because you sent our little brothers out to gather the wood!”

Wirt’s voice sounded accusatory. Like it was  _ Sean’s _ fault their brothers got lost. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Wirt furrowed his brow. “Nothing. Let’s just...let’s just go find them. We can worry about getting back once we’re all together again.”

So they resumed calling out to Greg and Daniel, again with no answers. Sean was about to lose hope, feeling the panic rising in his chest, when finally, he heard a voice. Daniel’s voice, calling his name!

“Sean!”

Sean whipped his head in the direction of the sound. “Daniel?”

“Sean!”

“Wirt!” That one was Greg’s voice.

“Greg?” Wirt spun, looking for where the voice was coming from. “Greg, where are you?”

“Sean!” came Daniel’s voice again.

“They’re over here,” Sean said, pointing to where he heard Daniel. “Come on, Wirt.”

Wirt nodded, and followed Sean deeper into the forest. The trees swallowed them up in an inky black darkness. In a brief moment of panic, Sean realized he couldn’t see Wirt when he looked behind him. He stopped, and Wirt slammed right into him, nearly knocking him off balance.

“Ow!” Wirt groaned. “What was that for?”

“Sorry. I thought I’d lost you.”

So as to not get separated, Sean grabbed Wirt’s hand as they hurried towards the sound of Daniel’s voice, still calling out Sean’s name, with Greg joining in the chorus. They ran for what seemed like hours, never seeming to get any closer.

His lungs screaming, Sean stopped to catch his breath. “Daniel, where are you?” he shouted, desperate now. Daniel called out to him again, this time from his right.

“Have we been going the wrong way this whole time?” Wirt said.

Sean narrowed his eyes. “No…”

“Then…?”

“Sean!” Daniel called out again, from the other direction this time. Then Greg shouted, from somewhere in front of him. And Sean finally noticed. His head was so foggy with panic and concern, he didn’t even realize. How could he have not picked up on it sooner? Daniel’s voice called out again. “Sean!” The same tone, the same inflection, the same volume. Like a recording, a record skipping again and again, in the same spot.

“That’s not Daniel.”

“What?”

The voice called Sean’s name again, and again, but each time, it got deeper, slower, until it stretched itself into nothing more than a low growl. Sean gripped Wirt’s hand tighter, squeezing it for comfort.

“Wirt,” he said. “Run.”

Without waiting for Wirt’s response, Sean took off, dragging Wirt by the wrist behind him. Wirt let out a yelp, and then a scream, and Sean fought the urge to look back. He just kept running. Which way did they come from? Right now it didn’t matter. They just had to outrun whatever this thing is, whatever had mimicked the voices of their loved ones.

What the fuck was going on here? First, they stumbled into a creepy deep forest, when they definitely should have ran into some kind of road hours ago. Then, it became nightfall like, almost instantaneously. They ran into these weirdly dressed kids around their own ages, and now they were being chased by some unknowable creature that sounded like Daniel. Sean had seen some weird shit over the past few days, but this was a whole new level of weird.

“Sean,” Wirt said, sounding out of breath, but otherwise calm. The panic seemed to have left his voice. “Sean, stop. I think we’re in the clear.”

Not needing to be told twice, Sean let go of Wirt’s hand and immediately doubled over, gasping for breath. His entire body ached with exhaustion. “What was that thing?” he asked.

“Don’t ask me. I’m just as freaked out as you are.”

Still huffing, Sean looked around. “Where are we?” he said. “Do you remember which way camp was?”

Wirt shook his head. “Everything looks the same around here.”

It was true. Everywhere Sean looked there was a tree completely identical to the one next to it. It sort of reminded him of this one area in a video he played back when he was a kid. It took him days to get past that part, because he would wander around in circles for hours on end, unable to make his way through the forest, getting completely lost in the woods.

Sean really hoped he wasn’t in a video game right now.

Eventually, they picked a direction and headed that way, hoping that somehow, maybe the woods would bend around and they’d find their campsite. Somehow, they were right, and within minutes they found the small clearing, and within it were Greg and Daniel, who was rubbing two sticks together while Greg blew on the firewood. Trying to do it like in the movies.

“Daniel!” Sean cried in relief, immediately rushing over and tackling his brother into a big hug. “Oh, I thought I’d lost you,  _ enano _ .”

“Greg, you can’t just wander off like that. We thought you guys had gotten lost.”

“We did get lost!” Greg said excitedly. “We had a whole adventure! There was a talking willow tree and an army of frogs! They tried to come for Agent Hopper!” He held up the frog, who ribbeted unenthusiastically.

“That’s great, Greg,” Wirt said. “But we were really worried. We went out looking for you.”

“And we ran into…” Sean started, but he cut himself off. No need to worry the kids. “Well, we thought we ran into you, but it was just the wind.”

With the help of Sean’s lighter, the fire was finally lit, and Sean’s weary bones could hardly stay upright any longer. He curled up into the hollowed out section of the tree, with Daniel bundled next to him, and almost immediately fell asleep.

Sean awoke some time later to a strong, aching pain in his back. He rolled over and opened his eyes, and found he was no longer underneath the tree. Instead, he found himself at the bottom of a steep hill, covered in mud, with broken tree trunks all around him. “What happened?” he said aloud, and the coarseness to his voice surprised him. He looked around, and noticed he couldn’t find Daniel. Panicked, he called out his name. “Daniel? Daniel where are you?”

Ignoring the pain shooting up his spine, Sean got to his feet and looked around. A couple of yards away from him, his brother lay on the ground, face-up. His chest was rising steadily, and he didn’t appear to have any major injuries. Sean rushed over to him, stumbling a bit as he knelt down in front of him. “Hey,  _ enano _ ,” he said. “Wake up.”

Gently, Daniel’s eyes fluttered open. He looked up at Sean, and then around them at the landslide that surrounded them. “Sean? Wh—where are we? What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Sean said. “I don’t remember—”

But as soon as he said it, the thoughts hit him like a baseball to the face. Memories of the past night. They were walking through the woods, when an especially slippery patch of mud caught Sean’s foot, and he lost his balance and slid down a landslide, not unlike the one they’d seen on their way to the campsite the day before. Remnants of a large storm long since passed. Sean cried out, grabbing out for something to hold onto, to stop himself from falling, but there was nothing. He slipped and landed on his chin, pain shooting throughout his body. 

Daniel stood in front of him, aghast, rendered helpless for a second, until he shook it away and chased after Sean, holding out his hand to grab onto, but he was always just out of reach. The last thought to go through Sean’s mind then was,  _ So this is it. This is how I die. _ He tried to roll onto his back, half-succeeding, and saw the jagged mess of broken tree trunks below him. If the fall didn’t kill him, the impact of those trees definitely would. So Sean closed his eyes and braced himself, shielding his face from the impact.

But the impact never came.

Back in the present, Sean blinked, the memory of last night shaking him. He helped Daniel to his feet and looked around. He looked up. That was quite a fall. How did they survive it? At the very least, how did they survive it in as good of shape as they did? Then there were the trees. Sean could have sworn they were closer to the edge, closer to where he’d fallen, but now they were on the opposite end of the ditch. As if they’d been moved somehow.

And then there was that weird dream he’d had. Though, maybe it made sense to have a weird dream about losing Daniel in the woods. That had been a fear of his since they set out. Losing Daniel, losing himself.

And well, those two other boys in the dream were almost definitely just supposed to be some kind of representation of his own relationship with his brother and...okay, no time to psychoanalyze himself here. Sean looked around for a sturdy patch of dirt to climb back up. He held out his hand for Daniel to grab. “Come on,  _ enano _ , let’s get out of here.”

As they trudged back up and pulled themselves out of the ditch, Daniel squeezed his hand before letting go and following beside him. “Sean?” he said as they made their way towards (hopefully) the main road.

“Yeah, Daniel?”

“What do you think happened to Wirt and Greg?”

Sean’s eyebrows lurched. “How do you…?” But he couldn’t finish his thought.

“I hope they’re okay,” Daniel said. “Maybe we could see them again someday.”

“Yeah,” Sean said. “I hope so, too.”


End file.
